An enigmatic, story-telling Stranger enchants a group of bored passengers in a Hebridean airport in Timothy Neat’s PLAY ME SOMETHING. Played vibrantly by the late Booker Prize winner John Berger, from whose short story the material was developed, the Stranger conjures up a charming, melancholy tale of a political activist and a peasant trumpeter, who meet one another and spend the evening talking and dancing in socialist Venice.

The handful of men and women awaiting the plane - amongst them a 20-something Tilda Swinton  as you’ve never seen her before, with auburn hair down to the waist - are all too glad of the distraction; before long, all are captivated, some roused to pitch in their own contributions. Berger’s tale, and the images that frame and enliven it, folds outwards to explore ideas about narrators and audiences, and the relationships between shared culture and communities.

Searching through collected textures of 16mm and 35mm film stock, black-and-white photographs, sound design, and the mesmerising narration, Berger and director Neat find that post-modern, fragmented form is no object to simple, evocative story-telling. A moving and lesser-seen study of the craft of narrative and its constituent elements, this movie represents a rare opportunity to see Berger’s radically material approach to art manifest in the cinema today.

Doors open 30 minutes before film start time